Embodiments of the present invention relate to modifiable sensor assemblies. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to modifiable sensor assemblies having a modifiable housing for inspecting a part.
Manufactured parts often require nondestructive inspection to detect foreign particles or internal defects such as inclusions, porosity, cracks, or delamination. Nondestructive inspection techniques such as ultrasound use a sensor device that projects wave energy into the part and senses reflections of the wave energy bouncing off of internal defects in the part. Reflections from internal defects are detected as anomalies with respect to readings from surrounding areas. To obtain accurate readings, the sensor must be in a precise position relative to the part. To that end, the sensor is mounted in or attached to a housing or a shoe that conforms to a contour of the part and holds the sensor at the precise position.
To create the housing, it is first drawn using CAD software, formed using conventional methods such as milling, bending, and extrusion, and then tested against the part. If the part itself was not formed with tooling or other precise processes, significant contour irregularities will cause the housing to be misaligned. This requires the housing to be modified by sanding, grinding, etc. Creating and modifying the housing are cumbersome tasks that cannot be easily performed and virtually cannot be performed in the field. Also, a set of multiple housings often must be kept for different parts or contours. The set is difficult to transport and may result in a wrong housing being used, which results in erroneous inspection results.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sensor assembly that overcomes the above limitations.